Carol Davies, the National House Building Council’s new head of HR, reveals plans to boost the organisation’s employer brand and plug skills gaps
Amid a seven-year boom in house-building and a government aim to create 200,000 new homes a year until the end of parliament, the National House Building Council (NHBC) – the UK’s leading standard-setting body and provider of warranty and insurance for new homes – has a mammoth task ahead. Ready to shape NHBC’s people strategy and lead the latest recruitment drive is its newly appointed head of HR, Carol Davies.
People Management caught up with her eight weeks into her new position to find out how she plans to use her experience to build on the company’s success, and tackle the challenges ahead.
What attracted you to your new role?
I was drawn to NHBC by its clear mission and purpose. The organisation is all about raising standards and protecting homeowners, and one of the biggest things I noticed when I started was the real passion the employees’ had for that mission. It’s so important to have a clear organisational purpose, set of values and approach that everyone can get behind and deliver. NHBC is not-for-profit and absolutely invests in its business and its people, and that can only be a good thing in terms of the agenda I’m trying to develop. Unless a person has bought a new home, they might not be aware of who we are and what we do, which is why we need to work hard to raise our profile, and publicise the great roles and opportunities NHBC offers.
When you join any organisation there are lots of new things to understand, lots of people to get to know and lots of opportunities to look at things differently. That’s very exciting. It’s about turning all of those ideas into real deliverables and demonstrating that HR really does play a key role in a business’s success.
What will be your main priorities for the next year?
Part of my remit early on is to gain a deeper understanding of the business and then I can start to set out my key priorities. I’m only eight weeks into my role so I haven’t really got a clear view at this point. There are lots of roles in the organisation, from building inspectors to actuaries, claims advisers to geo-environmental engineers. Across house-building and construction, skills are in short supply, so it’s important for us to take a long-term view about how we attract, develop and retain a skilled and competent workforce to maintain our competitive advantage. For me, it’s about making sure that the initiatives we put in place are driven from and aligned to our long-term business goals: raising house-building standards and protecting homeowners
How will you go about filling your skills gaps?
We take a broad view on where we look for talent: we employ approximately 1,300 people across the whole of the UK, who either work in Milton Keynes, work from home or are field-based. Similarly to many businesses, we recognise the value of having a diverse workforce and spent quite a bit of time last year refreshing our diversity and inclusion agenda.
Raising our profile as an organisation, making sure that people know what we do and the roles we offer, and ensuring that everyone who has the skills and experience we’re looking for is thinking about NHBC as an employer will be key to plugging our skills gaps.
We need to strengthen our relationships with local colleges and universities as well as local communities to raise awareness and hopefully attract the people we’re looking for.
However, we will also need to work hard, as any company does, to improve and promote our employer brand and ensure that we are developing people and skills internally through development programmes and opportunities for career progression, so that we don’t always have to go externally.